What's Your Favorite Audio Codec?

[TheProfosist]

Cool. added MediaMonkey to the poll.

Nice, now I can vote  ;)

media monkey, a codec? Do you possibly mean monkeys audio?

[TheProfosist]

ALAC and FLAC are nearly the same but from what I noticed from my ALAC/FLAC rips is, FLAC has a little better tone. i can still pick out if its ALAC or FLAC playing back nearly 60% of the time. But that's just me and I use foobar.

It's just placebo. They should sound exactly the same since both are lossless.

agreed. The only thing that might matter is the decoder used by the playback program, but as long as its witten properly it wouldnt.

[LAwLz]

Eh. There a small tone diff. Prob since I used Itunes for my ALAC rip I have atm. They do sound the same but the tune is little diff on my ALAC rip

Again, placebo. Either that or like OddballMV said, different EQ.

[TheProfosist]

Not quite sure what to think about this. Headphones are analog, so there is no bitrate limit or anything like that, What limits you are your audio files/soundcard. Have you listened to a song in ~2000 Kbps FLAC, then the 320Kbps version? Massive difference, but I guess you have to have the ears for it.

The drivers/planers/loudspeakers don't make use of the higher sampling rate/resolution/bitrate. As a man with golden ears, I can perceive a difference, but there is zero measurable difference. Lets take my favorite example, I prefer to listen to Nightmare by Avenged Sevenfold in flac, but there is really no measurable difference to my 320 rip that I use for portable listening. 

I dont know what you getting on about but in most cases with good equipment at your side you should be able to tell the difference between something lossy and losslessly compress, especially if you know that track pretty well. Also this "The drivers/planers/loudspeakers don't make use of the higher sampling rate/resolution/bitrate" they cant, because their just a speaker but thats not applicable because you cant just go plugging you headphones and speakers directly into a flac or mp3 can you? Also since you cant seem to understand this, how about what sounds better a standard cassette tape or a vinyl record?

[TheProfosist]

Eh. There a small tone diff. Prob since I used Itunes for my ALAC rip I have atm. They do sound the same but the tune is little diff on my ALAC rip

Again, placebo. Either that or like OddballMV said, different EQ.

yes, it could also be the encoder. Itunes it horrible in many was so who knows what its doing. Why dont u use something like dbpoweramp to rip your files? It can also convert and even batch convert between formats. Have you ever tried compared to playing the cd directly?

[TheProfosist]

I don't have a favorite. Not all codecs were designed for the same purpose, so picking one over the other is like saying you like monster trucks more than bicycles.

For use on my phone and such, AAC.

When I am at my computer at home I use FLAC.

 

I use Foobar2000 at home and Google Music on my phone.

get your self poweramp on your phone and start rocking flac on the go.

[TheProfosist]

O as for me my favorite codecs are AAC, FLAC, and WavPack.

[LAwLz]

get your self poweramp on your phone and start rocking flac on the go.

No thanks. AAC at ~320kbps (VBR) is much more than enough for me to not hear the difference. I use the included Samsung IEMs with my phone so it's pretty much as low as you can go quality wise.

I don't agree that there is a massive difference in quality between FLAC and high bitrate AAC/Vorbis/Opus. I've only been able to notice it a handful of times and I've done a lot of blind tests. I am gonna make a blind test for the forum for those of you who are interested.

[diiPex]

I play my music through iTunes in mp3 320kbps, suits my needs perfectly, and I don't see it worth the hassle to switch to another media player, or upgrade my tracks to a lossless format.  

[TheProfosist]

No thanks. AAC at ~320kbps (VBR) is much more than enough for me to not hear the difference. I use the included Samsung IEMs with my phone so it's pretty much as low as you can go quality wise.

I don't agree that there is a massive difference in quality between FLAC and high bitrate AAC/Vorbis/Opus. I've only been able to notice it a handful of times and I've done a lot of blind tests. I am gonna make a blind test for the forum for those of you who are interested.

 

I wouldnt call those IEMs (in ear monitors) as the are just headphones that are in ear IEMs are designed to give you the same experience as  circumaural monitor headphones but without being all big and over your ear. They were developed initialy for preforming so you coul lisen directly vs speakers facing you that would normally be used for monitoring. Also I still use AAC VBR 0.5 for the most part on my portable devices because I just use it to kill time every now and then and I rather it not take up much storage for the few times I use it. I mostly listen to at my desk music or in the car which in both places have far more storage that the portable devices. Also the only place ill sit and truly listen to an album straight through is at my desk, which is then where I put the most money into getting good equipment.

 

I not saying the difference is massive or even if you notice the difference you should care. Thats up to you and how much you care about your music/audio in each situation. You do realize that these codec's were created to make it so that it would be fine to the vast majority of people and that even to those other it would still be acceptable especially in cases where portable devices are concerned. Also the reason why a higher bit rate is better with lossy codecs is not just because of the higher bit rate but that because you allowed more bit rate cutoffs are raised and lower among other things which will give you a more full sound because more of the original frequencies are still there.

 

How would you do a blind test online though? All you need to see is the extension and bam, test ruined. As for a test blind is fine but its much easier to discern something like this if its a track you quite familiar with. Though, I think if im given a track I didnt know and was allowed listen to it a few times (probably like <5) and the track was something instrument heavy (not pop or something generated by a computer) I could probably discern which is which. 

[TheProfosist]

Also though id thow out the fact that most lossy codec are designed to be used well below their max rate for the most part.

[Wint3rSh0ck]

320 or VBR serves me fine. I've been using iTunes to organise my music for so long that I couldn't be screwed changing. Maybe if I listen to some FLAC and hear enough of a difference I'll consider making a big switch

[LAwLz]

How would you do a blind test online though? All you need to see is the extension and bam, test ruined. As for a test blind is fine but its much easier to discern something like this if its a track you quite familiar with. Though, I think if im given a track I didnt know and was allowed listen to it a few times (probably like <5) and the track was something instrument heavy (not pop or something generated by a computer) I could probably discern which is which. 

Oh you will see. You will probably facepalm when you realize the super easy way around that. I will use Vorbis, AAC and FLAC in the comparison. Give me a few hours and I'll have it ready. Takes time to find tracks, transcode, upload and all that.

[TheProfosist]

Oh you will see. You will probably facepalm when you realize the super easy way around that. I will use Vorbis, AAC and FLAC in the comparison. Give me a few hours and I'll have it ready. Takes time to find tracks, transcode, upload and all that.

 

Are you going to put it in a container or some kind say mkv?

[AndrewReaganM]

Remember guys, this isn't "What codec makes most sense", It's your Favorite codec. It doesn't have to make sense...at all... :p

[LAwLz]

Are you going to put it in a container or some kind say mkv?

OK I am done.

 

AAC vs Vorbis vs FLAC blind test (can you hear the difference)

[codytappen]

You should add Zune to the list of players and market places, as it's what I use to listen to most of my music (Bandicamp and Youtube should also be added).

[wkronbaek]

More options for the poll!

FLAC, Rhytmbox, Bandcamp